daytrades may 13 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Overnight gains on Wall Street and an up-tick in full-time employment have fuelled a second day of gains for Australian shares.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 63 points or 1.4% at 4636, near the index's highest level in five sessions. All sectors were trading higher, with the biggest gains coming in gold +1.7%, energy +1.6%, property trusts +1.6% and financials +1.6%.

Employment rose more than expected last month but the unemployment rate held steady at a seasonally-adjusted 5.4% after the March figure was revised upwards by 0.1%. Employment rose by 33,700 to 11 million, against a consensus forecast for a rise of 20,000. The rise in new full-time positions was the biggest in a year.

"The underlying picture of strong jobs growth is the main point here," 4Cast economist Michael Turner told Fairfax. "This... suggests second quarter prospects are looking okay." Read more here

Class action specialists Slater & Gordon are going after Goldman Sachs JBWere in a $15 million legal case alleging misleading and deceptive conduct on options contracts. The claims focus on contracts sold to Goldman Sachs clients in 2007. Client losses are alleged to mount to $15 million.

Asian markets followed Wall Street higher. Japan's Nikkei advanced 1.49%, Shanghai 0.14% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.7%. Dow futures were recently at -4.

Crude oil futures were 4 cents higher this morning at $75.52 a barrel. The spot gold price was 70 cents softer at $1,237.60 an ounce.


Took me an eternity to find a trade within my margin of safety this morning. ILU's pullback under $4.30 had all the hallmarks of institutional stop-loss running and delivered a nice bounce trade. I chuckled when I saw how many on the thread thought ABU was safe buying at 2.4c - I thought so too and was in around the same time. Obvious now that a lot of restless money was waiting for an exit opportunity. May require patience but I struggle with the idea that the company is worth less after that announcement than before.